Reviews

Status Report! (Kickstarter)

WELCOME to the QualityPLUS Business Concern Family! As a new crewmember aboard a QualityPLUS Economy Class Space Vessel, you should know that we have your utmost safety in mind. In the unlikely event that one or more of your System AIs become self-aware and murder your Captain, a new Captain will be promoted who will then be empowered to eradicate any rampant systems before the remaining crew is butchered, like the inadequate bags of meat they are.

<cmnd>/INITIATE CROWDFUNDING SPOTLIGHT PROCEDURE

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Status Report! is an asymmetrical social deduction game from Offcut Games where one player is the Captain of a spaceship and everyone else plays one of the ship’s onboard Artificial Intelligence programs. One of the System AIs remains operational, the remaining AIs are attempting to take over the ship, by killing the entire crew. It is up to the Captain to determine which system is still working before the crew are all dead.

This is the second edition of Status Report! which was originally created as part of Kickstarter’s 2017 Make 100 initiative. The second edition features new AI abilities and a tightened up ruleset. As well, the designers have expanded the game from five players to six or seven by adding a new role, the Science Officer. This player has their own unique set of abilities and victory conditions. They can choose to work with the Captain, or against them, in order to fulfill their own twisted agenda. But if the Captain gets too suspicious, the Science Officer could find themselves on the wrong side of an airlock door, studying the scientific effects of the vacuum of space.

Campaign pledge levels range from a ridiculously inexpensive $5 (USD) for a Print & Play edition of the game, up to a $200 limited edition that comes in a handcrafted wooden box. If you want something special, without breaking the bank, the $35 level gets you a physical copy of the game along with an exclusive metal Captain’s Badge produced by Eleven Metal. I’ve seen their metalwork in the past, so I can be pretty sure these badges will be gorgeous.

A couple of my friends have Offcut Games’ debut game, ​Complicated Board Game the Card Game, and love it. Status Report! looks to be every bit as well put together, and very much worth picking up.